Hatch-fest 2020

We are stuck here on the farm… well, I am. But we’re about to get some chickens in the mail in 4 weeks, so we are readying our hatch.

We usually do a hatch of 12 eggs from our flock, and an order of stuff from Meyers. I’ll start them on Saturday in the incubator, which has been freshly cleaned and parts bought for it.

The goal is to get the bluest of the blues, the greenest of the greens, and the darkest of the browns. Breeding in and in… that never goes wrong ever…

Tangent: one of my favorite episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You is the one on Prion diseases, and the in and in breeding of sheep led to a disease called scrapie. One of the other earlier names was Mad Staggers, which is now the name of my (entirely fictional) Irish punk band.

Anyway, we started today (Tuesday). Here are today’s selections, marked with sharpie to tell me when it was laid. Priority is color, then newest.

This will fill up over the week, then on to hatching. Tip for newbies, sharpies can be used on eggs without harming them. I usually mark them up if I know the mother, fertile or unsure… anything that will help get a good hatch.

And on March 18, be prepared for the chickens to arrive!!